


The 21st Nova Corps' Not-Padawan

by malaxandrite



Series: Brothers All [4]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Episode: s03e21 Padawan Lost, Master & Padawan Relationship(s), No Beta We Die Like Clones, ki-adi-mundi fucks, o-mer is ki-adi-mundi's son
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-12 03:33:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29378556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/malaxandrite/pseuds/malaxandrite
Summary: O-Mer lost his Master on Felucia, got kidnapped by Trandoshans, and was then hunted for sport—to say that these last few weeks have been bad would be an understatement.Ki-Adi-Mundi has had a lot to think about since the beginning of the war. As he grows closer with the 21st Nova Corps he realizes that attachments and relationships are not what he'd been taught. And, as Bacara said his training sergeant once told him, "a soldier without brothers is not one who survives long."O-Mer's fate as a Padawan is undecided, Ki-Adi-Mundi struggles to reconcile the Jedi Code with the realities of war, and what they need to figure all of this out just might be each other.
Relationships: Ki-Adi-Mundi & CC-1138 | Bacara, Ki-Adi-Mundi & O-Mer (Star Wars)
Series: Brothers All [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2114940
Kudos: 12





	The 21st Nova Corps' Not-Padawan

**Author's Note:**

> Mando'a translations in the end notes

Ki-Adi-Mundi’s shoes click on the tiled floor as he enters the darkened recovery room in the Halls of Healing. His shadow is long and thin as it spreads over the room’s single bed. The door shuts behind him and both Ki-Adi and the room’s occupant are plunged into darkness. 

“Master Mundi?” O-Mer asks, sitting up in bed. The boy had suffered tremendously on Felucia, the loss of his master and then being hunted by Trandoshans. He’d received a rather serious concussion and was still sensitive to light, hence the need for darkness. 

Ki-Adi clears his throat and straightens, “yes, padawan O-Mer, I was hoping that I could speak with you about something.” 

“O-Okay…” 

Ki-Adi takes a seat at the small table next to the bed. “You are aware of our… relation?” 

O-Mer’s brow raises at the question, then he scoffs, his nervousness leaving him quickly, “yeah, like anyone would ever let me forget.” Ki-Adi tilts his head, confused.

“What do you mean.” The padawan rustles around with the sheets for a moment before answering. 

“Well… it was like everything I did reflected back on you. ‘You better do well on this exam, O-Mer, or else it will make Master Mundi look bad.’” He says with a mocking tone, “‘Make sure you get chosen as a Padawan, you wouldn't want your father to be disappointed, now would you?’ Like you’d ever  _ acted _ like a father toward me.” There’s just enough light coming through the blinds for Ki-Adi to see O-Mer cross his arms and turn away, his bitterness clear. 

Ki-Adi-Mundi swallows. “Did-- did you ever  _ want _ me to act like that with you? As a father, I mean.” This gives O-Mer pause. In the Force the boy is hesitant. He turns to look at the Master Jedi for a moment, before he averts his gaze, looking down at his lap.

“I-I don’t know. I’ve never really thought about it.” Ki-Adi can hear the lie clearly, but he doesn’t comment on it.

“Do you want me to now?” Ki-Adi tries not to sound too hopeful, but he thinks he fails as O-Mer turns back to him, the little light coming in making his yellow eyes gleam, the same as Ki-Adi’s own.

“What do you mean?” 

Ki-Adi clears his throat. “I know you lost your master recently, and that you are to be reassigned to a new one. So, I am offering you a place among the 21st Nova Corps.” O-Mer says nothing, watching him from the bed with wide eyes. Ki-Adi’s shoulders rise up to his ears under his scrutiny. 

“Why?”

Ki-Adi blinks, he hadn’t really gotten around to putting his thoughts into words. He had secretly hoped O-Mer would just accept without question, but he clearly doesn’t know his son as well as he had assumed. 

“Well…” He begins, stroking his fingers over his moustache. “I have-- mmm… the war has--” Ki-Adi frowns, the words won’t seem to come, they sound so complete and succinct in his mind. He takes a deep breath. What would Commander Bacara say? The man seems to always get the information across in the exact number of words necessary, never saying too much or too little. It is a trait he envies greatly. 

“I have learned many things, working with the troopers,” he begins, “I have seen how they act with each other. Family means something different to them; growing up surrounded by siblings makes the distinction of family and not-family moot. But still they care for one another in a way I have never seen before. It is wholly unlike how Jedi care for each other. A bond between brothers—between soldiers—is something unbreakable. To them, these bonds make them stronger, wiser. Bacara, my commander, told me something once, that he was told by his training sergeant: a soldier without brothers is not one who survives long.” Ki-Adi pauses, looking down at his hands, worn and callused from years of wielding his lightsaber, the skin is wrinkled and pockmarked with age. 

“The Jedi… this war… we can no longer face this war as peacekeepers, as neutral parties. We have been conscripted into war, we must take up that duty and all that comes with it. As much as I am loath to admit it, the Jedi are soldiers. And soldiers rely on each other, they work as a team. And for that to occur, we must embrace the emotions that we have been taught to cast aside. Attachments make us more susceptible to the Dark, but it is also our attachments to each other that make us stronger. There is a reason the Mandalorians of old were such a tremendous force, their War Hymns speak of  _ aliit _ —clan, family—but not as we know it. Jedi… we see each other as brothers and sisters and siblings though the Force, but we do not love each other as family does. I guess the point I am trying to make is… that in order to survive this war we must rely on each other in ways that have been forbidden from our Order. The galaxy is not as it was when the Code was written, and the longer we fail to admit that, the more we will suffer.” 

Ki-Adi-Mundi lets the words carry him away, letting them come from his mouth unbidden and unchecked. He allows all his observations of the troopers and all his internal doubts and questions spring forth. It feels good, he finds, to let this all out. He hadn't realized that pressure had been building up in him, but he can feel now that if he had waited any longer to voice his concerns he would have burst.

He finds O-Mer’s eyes in the darkness, and the boy is staring at him, a mix of shock and confusion written on his face. His unease clear in the Force. Ki-Adi-Mundi sighs and hangs his head. 

“I also fear that I have neglected you. All your life you have been living in my shadow, a shadow that I, admittedly, did not know I had. You have had to live up to expectations that your fellow younglings didn’t. And for all your hard work, what did you receive? Nothing.” Ki-Adi’s fist clenches in his robes, his voice growing rough. “I didn’t spare you a passing glance. Years and years spent trying to make a man who didn’t acknowledge your presence proud. I am sorry, O-Mer, for not caring for you. If you were expected to follow my lead, then I should have been there to lead you. I should have guided you, helped you. But instead I was so fearful that any attachment to you might make us both failures that I convinced myself that removing myself from your life entirely was the right decision.” 

“Wh-- what are you saying?” O-Mer questions, finally speaking up.

Ki-Adi looks up at his son, stares him directly in the eye. “I am saying that I was given the option to raise you as my own, and I said no.” O-Mer looks away. “But, if you will allow me, I would like to rectify that. Nothing can make up for the years we lost to my cowardice, but I would like to try. I am not asking you to be my padawan. Though, if that is what you wish, I would be honored to have a padawan as skilled as you. I am asking you to allow me to be a father to you, and for you to be my son.”

As Ki-Adi stops talking, O-Mer looks down, his brow furrowed. He waits, holding his breath. In the Force, he is conflicted, unsure. “I’ll… I’ll have to think about it,” he says, voice quiet. 

“Of course,” Ki-Adi assures, “I wish I could give you more time to consider it, but the 21st is set to depart for the Outer Rim tomorrow evening at 18:00.” Ki-Adi’s hands fidget nervously in his lap, he hasn’t felt so anxious since the council was deciding his own fate as a padawan. O-Mer nods sharply, but stays quiet. “Right, well… I should leave you to rest.” 

He stands and walks toward the door. Just as he is leaving, O-Mer says softly, “thank you, Master Mundi.” Ki-Adi’s face breaks into a warm smile, “you’re welcome, O-Mer.” 

* * *

“Everyone’s loaded up and ready to go on the cruiser, General.” Commander Bacara says, stopping in front of Ki-Adi-Mundi. The commander stands at parade rest, fully armored, and face obscured by his helmet. 

“Thank you, Commander. I won’t be much longer.” Ki-Adi replies, checking the chrono on his comm to keep his hands from fidgeting. 

“Very well, sir. Would you like me to wait with you?” Ki-Adi considers it. Bacara isn’t always the best when meeting new people, if his early interactions with Admiral Alke are to be any indication. But it would also be good for O-Mer to get to know Bacara as soon as possible. 

“Yes, I think I would.” Bacara moves to stand next to him on the docking platform. 

“Of course, sir.” 

The minutes pass by in silence as they stand there, but Ki-Adi can feel tension growing around Bacara. He glances over at him, the commander’s posture is perfect and he stares straight ahead.

“You may ask if you like, Commander.” Ki-Adi hears the other man swallow. 

“The individual we’re waiting for… are they your padawan?” Bacara asks after a moment. Ki-Adi humms.

“Not quite. O-Mer is my son.” That gets Bacara to turn fully toward him, his expression no doubt shocked underneath his helmet. Ki-Adi suppresses a chuckle. The commander only allows himself this show of emotion for the briefest of seconds, before he snaps back into parade rest, eyes fixed ahead. Ki-Adi can hear the plates of his armor grind against each other as he clenches his fist behind his back. 

“May I ask a question, General?” The commander’s voice is quiet, unsure. 

“Of course.” 

“I thought that Jedi weren’t allowed to have attachments or anything like that.” 

“Typically, that is how the Jedi operate, but my case is a special one. Cereans have a rather skewed male to female birth ratio. For every 20 females born, there is only one male. In order to keep my species from going extinct I have been allowed to marry and create children. O-Mer is not the only male I have fathered, but he is the only Force Sensitive one. His mother allowed me to bring him back to the temple on the condition that, when he is old enough, he will also help keep his species alive.” 

“I see, sir.” Bacara seems to take the new information into consideration, head tilted down slightly, before asking, more confidently, “sir?” Ki-Adi turns to him, an eyebrow raised. The commander must see it out of his limited periphery, because he continues. “You said O-Mer isn’t your padawan, so what rank does that make him?” 

“To be frank, I do not know that he will join us. I offered him a position among the Nova Corps, but I am not convinced he will accept.” Ki-Adi does his best not to let his lingering melancholy bleed into the words. “But if he does, he will have no rank. If he chooses to become my padawan, then that would make him a commander alongside you, but if not he will simply be… well, my son.” It seems reckless, now that Ki-Adi thinks about it, bringing a 13-year-old into one of the clone units that sees the fiercest and most costly battles, and surely Bacara is thinking the same thing. “O-Mer has suffered greatly. He lost his master on Felucia and was then hunted for sport by Trandoshan bounty hunters. You must understand, Bacara, losing a master, breaking a Force Bond that suddenly, is like… like losing a part of yourself, like your soul has been ripped in half. And it is a horribly painful experience. I would not wish it upon anyone.” Ki-Adi trails off. Bacara hums thoughtfully and the conversation stalls. 

With each minute passed, Ki-Adi feels less and less confident that O-Mer will accept his offer and eventually resorts to watching the time tick down on his chronometer to hide his disappointment. But, just when he is about to accept the fact that O-Mer is not coming, Bacara speaks up.

“Sir,” his commander says. And when Ki-Adi looks up he points to the figure standing in the shadows across the hangar. Ki-Adi can’t help the small smile that forms on his face. “Should I go get him?” Bacara asks.

“No, he will come to us.” 

Just as Ki-Adi expected, once O-Mer realizes he’s been spotted he makes his way over. He looks much better than he did when he’d been brought back to the Temple, the color has returned to his skin and he walks with only a slight limp, though he sports thick-rimmed sunglasses to protect his still-recovering eyes. As he nears them, he adjusts the duffle bag over his shoulder.

“O-Mer,” Ki-Adi greets, causing the boy’s head to jerk up. “Have you come to take me up on my offer?” 

O-Mer shrugs and looks to the side, “I guess.” 

“Wonderful!” He says, face brightening. “I would like to introduce you to Bacara, my commander.” Ki-Adi gestures to the man next to him. 

“It is an honor to meet you, sir.” Bacara says, not moving from his parade rest.

“Right…” O-Mer says, shifting nervously, “you too.” 

The tense silence between the three of them only lasts a moment, as Bacara’s comm pings with a message. “General,” he says, not looking up, “Admiral Alke is threatening to take off without us.” 

“Oh dear,” Ki-Adi muses. He’s long since grown used to his Admiral’s prickly attitude. The young woman is cold and snappy, but she runs her ship well, and neither he nor Bacara have any complaints. “We best leave now then.” Bacara nods and turns around stiffly to attend to the drop-ship and pilot that have remained to take them up back. 

“Are you sure in your decision, O-Mer?” Ki-Adi asks, turning back to the boy. O-Mer’s shoulders hunch up defensively, but he settles after a moment. 

“I… yeah, I am.” 

Ki-Adi smiles, “good, I am happy to hear that. But we should leave now, it is in our best interests to keep the Admiral happy.” He ushers the boy onto the drop-ship, and the pilot takes them up toward the awaiting Venator and its grouchy Admiral. 

When they land, their pilot—Wings, if Ki-Adi remembers correctly—turns toward them, fixing the gaze of his helmet directly on O-Mer. “Welcome to the Galactic Marines, commander.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!!  
> In legends, Ki-Adi-Mundi is the only Jedi allowed to get married and have children due to his species' low male birth rate. Since male Cereans are so rare, I head canon that it is more common for them to be force sensitive than female Cereans. Also, since O-Mer's name only has two parts, I figured that the last part of a Cerean name is the family name, so that's why Ki-Adi-Mundi is referred to as Ki-Adi in this.  
> Mando'a Translations:  
> aliit - family, clan


End file.
